Waiting is the Worst
by DaniWilder
Summary: Tag for Inquisition/First attempt at One Shot. Jennifer gets some friends to help her deal with SGA1 being held for crimes against Pegasus. Hints of McKeller. Some of my usual OCs make appearances.


**MGM owns all characters except OCs**

**A/N: I am one of the tens of thousands who has a stranded loved one around the world because of the volcano in Iceland. Needless to say that inspired my muse to write this. Master Gunnery Sergeant Dwayne Richards is an OC of mine who I have used in several stories. **

**All mistakes are mine. No beta on this.**

**Spoilers to Inquisition. Hints of McKeller pre-ship.**

* * *

"Why don't we just spring them out?" Jennifer Keller asked as she gave Major Evan Lorne a quick physical after returning from investigating claims that SGA1 had been captured and put on trial for crimes against the Pegasus Galaxy.

"We don't know where they are."

"Why not? I thought the DHD holds gate addresses…" Jennifer started. Her stomach was wound up so tight she thought she'd vomit on her surrogate big brother.

"Zelenka's torn it apart and we've sent half the teams out, but they found nothing," Lorne said, sounding annoyed.

"So turn Master Gunny and his men loose on that idiot in the holding cell," Jennifer snapped.

"Jennifer! You're a physician," Evan said with raised eyebrows as he jumped off the table. "We don't torture people."

Jennifer knew she was not making a lot of sense so she just shook her head.

Nodding and reaching out to squeeze her arm, Evan said, "Listen, I gotta get to Woolsey and tell him what I found out."

"Which was… nothing. Right?" Jennifer said, the uncertainty making her angry again.

"Jennifer, we all want Sheppard and his team back," Evan said, trying to calm his friend. "Woolsey is furious they were led into a trap like that."

Jennifer closed her eyes as tears welled up. They were for so many different emotions; she was amazed they hadn't fallen since this began two days ago. Letting out a shaky breath, the young woman said, "Let me know when you know something. _Please_."

The soft plea obviously melted Lorne's toughed heart. "I promise. We'll get them home so don't lose any sleep."

"Sure," Jennifer said with a smile. Sleep was nowhere in her plans until the man she dreamed about nightly was back on Atlantis. Tears threatened once again, so she quickly turned to remove her gloves.

Jennifer Keller was being stupid. She had no reason to act like a wife whose husband was missing in action and to suggest her friends from the Corp resort to torture. Her anger was mostly self-directed for failing, after two years and at least five near-deaths for Rodney and three she could remember for her, to tell him she loved him. There was the legitimate excuse that things were far too chaotic on Atlantis for a relationship or to even think about having one. But then there was the self-imposed excuse of waiting to see if he felt anything for her before she said anything. He remembered almost nothing from the time he was infected and told her he loved her, so she waited. The physician would turn twenty-eight soon and continued to moon over a man she adored but was afraid to tell of her intentions.

* * *

Once Jennifer back to her room after her shift ended, she kicked off her shoes and flopped onto her bed. Staring at the ceiling she thought about all the times Rodney's team had been missing before and didn't know why waiting for this one was worse. _Because you know what happened to him. Some crackpots are holding them for trial and going to exile them for eternity and you know Atlantis is powerless to help. _

Tears began to roll out of the corners of her eyes. Sitting up quickly and getting dizzy in the process made Jennifer not hear the chime on her door the first time._ Did Lorne find out anything? _She jumped up, felt light headed - probably from not eating all day - and had to grab a chair to regain her balance as the second one went off.

The door didn't ring a third time. It opened. Her heart leaped in her chest at the brief thought that Rodney had returned. Of course the fact that he'd come to her immediately and override her door controls to get to her was preposterous, but the anxious woman allowed the thought to cross her mind.

"Everything all right, Doctor Keller?" the deep voice of Master Gunnery Sergeant Dwayne Richards pulled her out of her stupor.

"You overrode my door control?" she questioned.

"Major Lorne gave me authority to do it if you didn't answer in a reasonable time," the big Marine said, standing at attention in the doorway. His hands were behind his back and his posture rigid.

"Two rings aren't reasonable? I could have been in the bathroom," Jennifer said with a smile. Few on the base felt comfortable around Ronon's favorite sparring partner or at least the only one besides Teyla to offer any resistance to the big Satedan. He was a member of the original expedition and selected by Colonel Sumner personally. His reputation for strategy and knowledge on the battlefield were legendary, so rumors and stories about the exploits of the veteran Marine circled the base for years.

The Marine raised one eyebrow in response.

"Of course, your _super_-Marine powers allowed you to see I was not feeling well," she replied, waving for him to come in.

"Should I call Captain Cole?" Richards set down a box on her desk and looked at her critically.

"No!" Jennifer raised her hands to ward off his concern. She could never lie or hide anything from her fellow Mid-Westerner. An Iowa farm boy from Cedar Rapids, he once told her about himself, that link of small-town kid in outer space stuck and she considered him a friend unlike any of her others.

"If you're ill…"

"I haven't been eating or sleeping, but I'm not ill," Jennifer revealed. The ease with which she could open up with him often gave her pause, but she just didn't see him as a glowering, killing machine. She had a similar reaction to meeting Ronon. Her upbringing taught her to be nice and friendly to everyone. _You always get more with honey _her Nana used to say.

"Good thing I grabbed some food in the mess hall for you," he replied, pulling the chair out from her desk.

"And if I'm not hungry?" she asked, crossing her arms.

A cocked head and raised eyebrow greeted her.

"Okay, I'm eating," Jennifer said, sitting down grumpily and opening a box to find steak, brown rice and corn.

"Don't have corn on the cob until the Daedalus gets back," he said as he looked around her room.

"You don't have any secret _corn_ connections in Iowa?" Jennifer asked.

"We seem to run out of mozzarella cheese a lot. Don't you have any connections?" he shot back.

Jennifer smiled as she looked up at him from her seat. "Aren't you eating?"

"Already did."

"Are you just going to watch me eat?" she asked. His gray eyes bore into her browns for a minute. Shaking her head, Jennifer said, "Well don't just stand there. At least sit down."

"I'm on duty, ma'am," he replied.

Jennifer laughed as she realized he was joking. "Please."

After her plea, he pulled out another chair and eased his large frame into it. Glancing at her companion, Jennifer's mind drifted back to the first time she met the Marine. And how she saved his life.

* * *

Shortly after her arrival and the untimely death of Carson Beckett, her beloved mentor, Jennifer was rushing out of the mess hall with her dinner. Seeing Rodney eating with Katie Brown broke her already fragile heart and she wanted no part in watching them while she ate alone in the corner.

As she passed by a table of Marines eating cookies someone got from home, she noticed the biggest man at the table suddenly looking flushed. One of the first things Jennifer did when she got to the base was review all the medical files for personnel with conditions that might put them at risk. It was something the conscientious woman always did, even in grad school.

Knowing there was a Marine who had severe allergies to sesame and seeing a box of homemade cookies sent her into action. "Is that Sergeant Richards?" she asked the closest Marine.

"Yes, ma'am," the handsome soldier said.

"This is Doctor Keller to the infirmary, I'm going to need a medical team to the mess hall _stat_!" Jennifer reached out to grab the Marine just as he began wheezing and staggering to his feet. "Somebody help me get him down."

The Marines all looked dumbfounded at the small woman, who grabbed Richards' arm to tug him down. The wheezing, redness of his face and general swelling was increasing at a rapid rate. "He's having an allergic reaction. Someone help me!"

A large black-skinned Marine grabbed Richards' other arm and the baby-faced Marine she spoke to first got up and together they got him to the floor. He had already lost consciousness before he hit the deck.

"He's got an Epi-pen in a pocket somewhere," she shouted to the two Marines. "Find it!"

She immediately pulled loose his collar and tried to clear his airway. A large crowd gathered around her and the Marines. Desperately wanting them to stop staring, but more concerned about saving this man's life, she started giving him emergency breaths.

"Got it," the baby-faced Marine said, holding up the pen.

"Give him a shot in the leg," she said as she continued to try to keep oxygen going into his lungs. "You need to hit really hard to get through the clothing."

The Marine followed her instructions, the medical team arrived and Jennifer became a legend in her own right to the Marines on Atlantis that day.

* * *

"Mister Woolsey is going to speak to this Coalition," Richards said, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"What?"

"Thought you might want to know," he said nonchalantly.

"Of course I want to _know_. Did that prisoner talk?" Jennifer asked.

"Broke all his fingers and his knee caps but he talked," Richards replied.

"What!"

An extremely rare smile passed over the Master Gunn's face. "Lorne said you wanted us to water board the guy. I went for old fashioned brute force."

"You are a rotten liar, Master…" Jennifer was cut off as her door sounded again.

"Good," Richards said, getting up for an expected visitor. "I was getting hungry for dessert."

The Marine opened her door and Sergeants Tommy Stackhouse and Robert Warrington entered with candy and some DVDs.

"I heard there was a party in your quarters, so I couldn't pass up that opportunity. Men on the base never get to see your…" Tommy stopped speaking and stepped back as a look that could send a Wraith scampering came over Richards' face.

"What are you guys doing here?" Jennifer asked, ignoring Richards' anger at Stackhouse.

"We're all off duty tonight, ma'am," Warrington said. "We thought we'd keep you company."

Jennifer felt tears well up again as she looked at the Marines. Richards nodded and touched her shoulder gently. "Waiting is the worst."

Her tears began to fall as the other Marines smiled knowing smiles.

* * *

Two days later Jennifer found herself seated with Sheppard, Teyla, Woolsey, Lorne, Radek and Rodney eating dinner and laughing about Richard's tales from his days of being a lawyer. As her hand brushed Rodney's on the way to get their drinks, which happened to be next to each other, a blush rose over her cheeks. Looking away from the physicist, her eyes connected with the gray ones of Dwayne Richards for a second.

A wink and a smile were sent her way.

**

* * *

A/N:** **Wish I had a bunch of Marines to keep me company, but not sure how they'd do with a 1 year old and a 5 year old. Hope you enjoyed my first attempt at a OneShot.**

**A huge thanks to my fan fiction friends who are helping me deal with my missing husband. Not really missing, just stuck in England.**


End file.
